


The Stories We Tell

by Kingshammer



Series: Republic City Police Department [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Bending (Avatar), Established Relationship, F/F, Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 15:55:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13550652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingshammer/pseuds/Kingshammer
Summary: Asami makes an observation about Korra over dinner with Korra's parents while they're in town visiting.





	The Stories We Tell

**Author's Note:**

> Hey friends,
> 
> So this takes place in my "everyone works for Republic City Police" AU.
> 
> Basically?
> 
> Korra, Mako, Bolin are cops. Asami is a forensic tech.
> 
> Bending exists but Korra only bends water.

  
_She doesn’t tell the whole truth at all._

The realization amused Asami, and turned her speculative. Korra was in the middle of a highly animated story that included different voices and wild hand gestures. Korra's parents sat across the table, her mother laughing quietly, politely; her father the opposite; his obvious enjoyment only fueled Korra's fervor.

Asami knew the story; it was a party favorite. Korra and Mako got a call late in their shift, in the early hours of the Winter Solstice. Both had been eager to leave on time, but just an hour before the end of the shift, they'd received a call for a suspicious automobile parking in the middle of the roadway with its headlights burning for over an hour, occupied by a single driver. Korra and Mako had groaned in unison. It was likely the driver was impaired and an impaired driver could take as much as three hours to process. Beyond that? It was cold. The bitter kind of cold that cuts through layers, numbs extremities instantly, and makes your head ache if it isn't wrapped right.

They'd arrived and at first had every indicator the driver was drunk: asleep at the wheel with his foot on the brake, automobile in the forward gear, confusion and disorientation when he finally woke up, reeking of alcohol, and urine all over his pants.

The story went that Mako did his sobriety tests, and miracle of miracles, determined that while the driver might've been too drunk to drive earlier, he was no longer that drunk, having just enough time to sober up some. They'd given him a ride home after parking his car. They were his hero, and they'd gotten off duty on time. A Solstice miracle.

The story on its face wasn't entertaining, it was the way Korra told it that made it fun. Her eyes shone with the memory and it made for pleasant, light dinner conversation. She had developed a knack for dramatic pause and witty one liners, something seasoned cops got better at with age.

Asami watched Korra's parents and wondered if they saw through their daughter's front. Maybe they could, if they wanted. Maybe they chose blissful ignorance in regards to their daughter.

Blissful ignorance wasn't a choice for Asami, not that she minded. But in between the laughter and the pauses for breath and food and the gentle remarks from Korra's mother or the reciprocating war story from Korra's father, Asami felt the stories in between. Knew them, like the back of her own hand. She took pictures of the carnage, immortalizing the horrors for case files that would survive for decades.

Asami laughed at all the right times, because she loves Korra. But she saw the in between, the stories Korra never told. The reel in Asami's mind saw Korra waking up in cold sweats from nightmares, sometimes screaming, sometimes silent, her eyes often fixated on some image far off in the past.

_Korra arresting the mother who'd left her infants unattended in a cold automobile at 2am while she sat in the bar drinking._

Korra holding a junior officer that was bleeding out from the face after being viciously attacked by a crowbar.

_Korra holding a screaming girl her own age who'd just realized that the twisted piece of wrecked metal on the roadside held the shell of her twin brother._

Korra, young and scared, as a bloody, naked deranged man covered from head to foot in lacerations and his own filth ran at her and Mako swinging a shard of glass in his bloody fist.

_Korra fighting a giant 14 year old who had to be taken to the hospital to be committed._

Korra, biting her tongue, when the drunk calls her a "cunt" and a "dyke" and a "donkey fucking bitch" for the hundredth time in a minute.

_Korra and Bolin, both working a shift not theirs, finding a heartbroken almost ex-husband, in the back of his storage unit, his wrists cut deep, his neck sliced, lying in a pool of his own blood, gasping for breath, still, somehow, alive._

Korra, and the countless times she'd been hit, pushed, cussed at, and complained on. The times she'd been scared and humbled because only after the arrest she'd found the hidden, deadly weapon.

These were the stories Asami thought of while Korra shared the most silly and benign with her parents. They were proud of Korra. Relieved, because surely Republic City wasn't as dangerous as people made it out to be.

 

Later that night in bed, Asami pressed a kiss to the top of Korra's head. Korra was curled into her left side, her head resting on Asami's shoulder, arms wrapped around Asami's waist. Asami absentmindedly ran a hand up and down Korra's back as she read a book. Korra, already dosing, snuggled in closer at the feeling of Asami's lips on her head.

"Korra?" asked Asami after a while.

"Hmm?" Korra grunted by way of reply. She really was sleepy.

"Why do you tell your parents stories like the one with the drunk driver?" Asked Asami. She put her book down and continued running her hand up along Korra's back, secretly admiring the tough muscle underneath the skin. Korra turned her head up slightly to look at Asami.

"Like, why did I pick that particular story or why did I tell it so exceptionally well?" She asked with a smirk. Asami rolled her eyes, but had a smile on her face.

"Not what I meant. I meant more that you seem to intentionally downplay your job when you talk to them. Your work life isn't usually so mild," replied Asami. Korra's smirk faded to a thoughtful look. She shrugged a shoulder.

"I don't want them knowing those stories I guess," she replied.

"Don’t you think they guess you don't tell them the worst of it?" Inquired Asami, genuinely curious. Her experience with her estranged father had been different. She'd gotten into forensics because of her father. He'd been the one to expose her to the darker, uglier side of humanity and criminality. Ironically in hindsight.

"I guess I don't want to paint a clearer picture than the one they already have. It's one thing to guess, another to know," replied Korra seriously. Asami hummed in understanding.

"It's not their burden, it's mine. My dad sorta gets it, he' s seen some sad scary stuff with the fire department down there. But it's different. They don't have the same issues we do here. It's a quieter life," remarked Korra after a while.

"That's a lot to carry on your own," said Asami. Korra laughed a little.

"I don't carry it on my own. You help and so do Mako and Bolin. Tenzin even. I don't have to explain so much to you. Sure, the job is dangerous. And the danger is all my parents would see. You see everything else. You see the training, the preparation, the tactics, the caution we all take. There's a balance in there, somewhere," she said. Asami smiled softly.

"I suppose you're right. I know I don't say it often, and I know you know, but if there's anything you want or need to talk about," started Asami. Korra cut her off by stretching up and catching Asami's lips in a kiss. Asami's eyes shut as she and the hand on Korra's back reached up to tangle in the hair at the base of Korra's neck. It was a firm kiss, full of depth and certainty. They parted eventually, just before it evolved into a more heated encounter entirely.

"You do so much for me Asami. We experience the work together and I know you're there for me. I'm here for you too," said Korra quietly, with conviction. Asami's heart swelled some as she captured Korra's lips again, the kiss more chaste.

"I know," she said. Korra, still tired, settled back down and snuggled back into Asami tightly. Asami extinguished the light and settled down into the bed.

"I do like listening to you tell stories," she said in the darkness of the room. She felt Korra's smile.

"Of course you do. Everything I do enthralls you," she said. Asami lightly slapped her back. Korra just laughed, quietly, the sound brightening the dark room.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
